1980–81 S.L. Benfica season

Benfica

1980–81 season
President	José Ferreira Queimado (until 29 May 1981) Fernando Martins
Head coach	Lajos Baróti
Stadium	Estádio da Luz
Primeira Divisão	1st
Taça de Portugal	Winners
Cup Winners' Cup	Semi-finals
Supertaça de Portugal	Winners
Top goalscorer	League: Nené (20) All: Nené (32)
Home colours
← 1979–80 1981–82 →

The 1980–81 season was Sport Lisboa e Benfica's 77th season in existence and the club's 47th consecutive season in the top flight of Portuguese football, covering the period from 1 July 1980 to 30 June 1981. Benfica competed domestically in the Primeira Divisão, Taça de Portugal and the Supertaça de Portugal, and participated in the Cup Winners' Cup after winning the Taça de Portugal in the previous season.

In the new season, Mário Wilson was replaced by Lajos Baróti. In the transfer season, major signings included António Veloso, Francisco Vital and João Alves, who returned to the club. Benfica's league campaign started with seven consecutive wins, before a first loss with Porto in the Clássico. A few days later, Benfica wins their first Supertaça de Portugal. In the Cup Winners' Cup, Benfica eliminated Altay, Dinamo Zagreb and Malmö in the first three rounds. In late November, Benfica draws with Sporting and three weeks later, with Vitória de Setúbal, lapping the first half in first place with a three-point lead. In the following weeks, Benfica won three more matches before losing another point in a draw with Penafiel, which cut his lead to two points. They reacted with four more wins, including a home win against Porto, which widened their difference to four points. Meanwhile, in Europe, Benfica defeated Fortuna Düsseldorf in quarter-finals but was knocked-out by Carl Zeiss Jena in the semis. The final two months of the Primeira Divisão saw Benfica drop points with Académico de Viseu, Vitória de Guimarães and Sporting, reducing their lead to two points. On match-day 29, a home win against Setúbal secured their 24th league title. They concluded the season by winning their 17th Taça de Portugal in a 3–1 win against Porto.

Season summary

In the previous season, Mário Wilson failed to regain the title, prolonging the drought to three years. It was the first time since 1954 that Benfica went so long without a league title.^[1] Despite winning the Taça de Portugal, he did not continue for a second year.^[2][3] As replacement, Benfica contacted Raymond Goethals, but he declined, so the club turned to 66-year old Hungarian Lajos Baróti.^[4][5] After negotiations, on 9 June, he agreed to replace Wilson.^[6] In the transfer season, Benfica signed players like António Veloso and Francisco Vital, who were regularly used by Baroti.^[7] However the transfer of Summer was the return of João Alves from France, with Benfica making a last minute offer and signing him, before Sporting, who was also interested, could.^[8] The pre-season began on 21 July, with Benfica travelling to Canada on the 28 to play the Toronto Tournament.^[9][10] After winning the tournament in Canada,^[11] Benfica made their presentation game on 13 August with Paris Saint-Germain,^[12] and finished the pre-season by competing in the Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu with Real Madrid and Dinamo Kyiv from 29 to 31 August.^[13][14] The match with Varzim scheduled for that weekend was postponed to 4 October.^[14]

Benfica started their season with the preliminary round of the Cup Winners' Cup with Altay, beating 4–0 at home.^[15] Domestic competition began on 24 August in an away win against Boavista.^[16] Benfica kept on winning in the following weeks, eliminating Dinamo Zagreb in Europe,^[17] and winning six more league matches in a row, with Manuel Bento going unbeaten in the league for 1080 minutes.^[18][2] In late October, Benfica visited Porto at Estádio das Antas, losing by 2–1, their first in the league.^[2] They recovered from the loss and won their next three matches for the Primeira Divisão, creating a four-point lead at the front.^[2] They also beat Sporting in the second leg of the Supertaça de Portugal and won their first Supertaça.^[19] In the Cup Winners' Cup, they progressed to the quarter-finals after knocking out Malmö.^[18] On match-day 12, Benfica faced Sporting in Alvalade and drew 1–1, retaining the first place.^[2][18] Three weeks later, they drew again, now with Vitória de Setúbal and finished the first half of the league a week later with a three-point lead.^[2]

Benfica started the second half with three consecutive wins, until they were stopped by Penafiel in early February, which shortened their lead over Porto to only two points.^[2] They reacted with four more wins in a row, including a home win against Porto on 14 March in the Clássico, which gave them a four-point lead with seven matches to go.^[2] At the same time, in the Cup Winners' Cup, Benfica beat Fortuna Düsseldorf at home, after a 2–2 away draw, qualifying for the semi-final.^[20] March closed with another draw, now with Académico de Viseu, removing a point from their lead over Porto.^[21] On 8 April, Benfica met Carl Zeiss Jena for the first leg of the semi-finals, losing 2–0.^[15] Four days later, they drew with Vitória de Guimarães, and saw his lead drop to two points with four match-days to go, one of them against Sporting.^[22] The European campaign ended on 22 April, with a one-nil win, not enough to overcome the deficit brought from Jena.^[20]

Benfica started May with the Derby de Lisboa against Sporting. They drew 1–1 in a match riddled with controversy.^[23] Sporting complained of several mistakes by referee Inácio de Almeida and asked for him to be banned for refereeing.^[23] Because Porto had also drop points in Penafiel, Benfica kept their two-point lead.^[23] A few days later, Benfica faced Jimmy Hagan's Belenenses for the semi-finals of the Portuguese Cup, winning 1–0 and qualifying for the final.^[24][25] They made their second visit to Estádio do Restelo, seven days later, now for the Primeira Divisão. They won by 3–0, with a double from Nené, who secured his first Bola de Prata for league top-scorer.^[16][24] A week later, Benfica thrashed Vitória de Setúbal by 5–1 and confirmed their 24th league title, the first since 1976–77.^[2] The celebrations were scared by the violent confrontations between Police and Benfica fans.^[24] The league campaign ended with a 2–0 loss against Espinho, which the Portuguese Football Federation turned to a 3–0 loss because Benfica fans had celebrated too soon and invaded the pitch.^[2] The season concluded with the Taça de Portugal final against Porto, where Nené scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 win, with Benfica securing a double.^[26] Before leaving, departing President José Ferreira Queimado signed a one-year extension with Baróti.^[27]

Competitions

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Overall record

Competition	First match	Last match	Record
			G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %	Source
Primeira Divisão	24 August 1980	31 May 1981	30	22	6	2	72	15	+57	073.33	[28]
Taça de Portugal	4 January 1981	6 June 1981	7	7	0	0	17	3	+14	100.00	[28]
Cup Winners' Cup	20 August 1980	22 April 1981	10	5	3	2	12	5	+7	050.00	[28]
Supertaça de Portugal	10 September 1980	29 October 1980	2	1	1	0	4	3	+1	050.00	[28]
Total			49	35	10	4	105	26	+79	071.43

Supertaça de Portugal

Primeira Divisão

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Benfica (C)	30	22	6	2	72	15	+57	50	Qualification to European Cup first round
2	Porto	30	21	6	3	53	18	+35	48	Qualification to Cup Winners' Cup first round[a]
3	Sporting CP	30	14	9	7	48	28	+20	37	Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
4	Boavista	30	14	8	8	36	25	+11	36
5	Vitória de Guimarães	30	11	9	10	38	30	+8	31

Results by round

Matches

Taça de Portugal

European Cup Winners' Cup

Preliminary round

First round

Second round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Friendlies

Player statistics

The squad for the season consisted of the players listed in the tables below, as well as staff member Lajos Baróti (manager), Monge da Silva (assistant manager), Fernando Caiado (assistant manager), Gaspar Ramos (Director of Football).^[27][8]

Note 1: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Note 2: Players with squad numbers marked ‡ joined the club during the 1980-81 season via transfer, with more details in the following section.

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Primeira Divisão		Taça de Portugal		Cup Winners' Cup		Supertaça
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	POR	Manuel Bento	46	0	30	0	5	0	10	0	1	0
1	GK	POR	António Botelho	4	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0
2	DF	POR	Minervino Pietra	43	0	30	0	5	0	7	0	1	0
2‡	DF	POR	António Veloso	36	0	23	0	5	0	7	0	1	0
3	DF	POR	Humberto Coelho	36	7	22	4	4	1	9	2	1	0
4	DF	POR	João Laranjeira	34	1	20	1	5	0	8	0	1	0
4	DF	POR	Frederico Rosa	28	0	17	0	4	0	5	0	2	0
4	DF	POR	Carlos Alhinho	6	0	4	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
4‡	DF	POR	Alberto Bastos Lopes	8	0	4	0	1	0	2	0	1	0
5	DF	POR	António Bastos Lopes	37	0	22	0	6	0	8	0	1	0
6	MF	POR	José Luís	16	0	8	0	3	0	3	0	2	0
6	MF	POR	Carlos Manuel	47	11	28	7	7	2	10	1	2	1
6‡	MF	POR	João Alves	46	14	30	14	5	0	9	0	2	0
6	MF	POR	Toni	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	FW	POR	Nené	48	32	29	20	7	7	10	4	2	1
8	FW	POR	Reinaldo Gomes	25	14	15	8	6	5	4	1	0	0
9	FW	BRA	Jorge Gomes	14	1	7	1	3	0	4	0	0	0
9	FW	BRA	César Oliveira	33	14	18	11	6	0	7	2	2	1
9‡	FW	POR	Francisco Vital	28	4	15	1	4	2	7	0	2	1
10	MF	POR	Fernando Chalana	39	3	24	1	6	0	8	2	1	0
11	MF	POR	Shéu	47	2	30	2	6	0	10	0	1	0
11‡	FW	POR	Joel Almeida	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0

Transfers

In

Entry date	Position	Player	From club	Fee	Ref
13 May 1980	FW	Joel Almeida	Amora	Undisclosed	[35]
25 June 1980	DF	António Veloso	Beira-Mar	Undisclosed	[7]
25 June 1980	FW	Francisco Vital	Betis	Undisclosed	[7]
27 June 1980	MF	João Alves	Paris Saint-Germain	Undisclosed	[8]
28 July 1980	DF	Alberto Bastos Lopes	Estoril-Praia	Loan return	[10]
28 July 1980	GK	Jorge Martins	Barreirense	Undisclosed	[10]

Out

Exit date	Position	Player	To club	Fee	Ref
15 July 1981	MF	Orlando Fonseca	Vitória de Guimarães	Free	[36]
23 July 1980	MF	Mário Wilson	Académica de Coimbra	Free	[37]
July 1980	MF	Adriano Spencer	Alcobaça

Out by loan

Exit date	Position	Player	To club	Return date	Ref
2 June 1980	FW	Jorge Silva	Amora	30 June 1981	[38]
2 June 1980	DF	Joaquim Pereirinha	Amora	30 June 1981	[38]
8 August 1980	MF	Diamantino Miranda	Amora	30 June 1981	[39]
19 August 1980	MF	Cavungi	Braga	30 June 1981	[40]

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Tovar, Rui Miguel (2012). Almanaque do Benfica. Portugal: Lua de Papel. ISBN 978-989-23-2087-8.
• Miguéns, Alberto (2005). 100 anos 100 troféus. Portugal: Prime Books. ISBN 972-8820-34-8.
• Simões, António (1994). História de 50 anos do Desporto Português. Portugal. {{cite book}}: |newspaper= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)